Chapter 5 - Regina’s Perfect Daughter
By morning, the story had spread across every local news station.
VINEYARD WEDDING RAIDED DURING BRIDE’S FIRST DANCE.
STATE AUDITOR RESCUED FROM LOCKED BATHROOM.
PROMINENT CHARITY FAMILY UNDER INVESTIGATION.
Videos from the wedding appeared online. One showed Kayla screaming that I had ruined everything. Another captured officers leading Regina across the terrace while the giant cake remained untouched behind her.
But the video receiving the most attention had been recorded by a guest standing near the service corridor.
It captured Derrick’s voice through the bathroom door.
“Just ten minutes, Laura. Don’t make this any worse.”
Millions of people heard it.
Millions watched him walk away.
For years, Regina had built her reputation through appearances. Elegant dresses. Charity speeches. Photographs with politicians.
Now one grainy phone recording revealed more truth than a decade of polished interviews.
Rachel entered my room shortly after sunrise.
“Hope had a stable night.”
I had already called the neonatal unit twice.
“I want to see her.”
“The nurse is arranging it.”
Rachel placed a folder on the table.
“We searched Regina’s private office.”
“What did you find?”
“Enough to keep an accounting team awake for a year.”
Inside the folder were photographs of ledgers, donor lists, bank cards, and storage keys.
One photograph showed a wall hidden behind a wine cabinet. Inside the concealed space were dozens of labeled envelopes.
Judges.
Contractors.
Police officials.
Journalists.
Donors.
Every envelope contained either payment records, private photographs, recordings, or personal information.
“She blackmailed them,” I said.
“Some. Others accepted money willingly.”
“And Mercer?”
Rachel turned to a photograph of an envelope marked D.M.
It was empty.
“He got there first,” I said.
“Possibly.”
“What about Kayla?”
Rachel’s expression became unreadable.
“We found something connected to her.”
She showed me a bank statement.
Seven transfers had been made from the mothers’ charity to a company called Evergold Events.
The company had paid for Kayla’s wedding.
Flowers.
Champagne.
The dress.
The musicians.
Even the crystal chandelier beneath which my water broke.
The wedding had cost almost two million dollars.
Most of it came from donations intended for pregnant women who could not afford medical treatment.
My stomach turned.
“Did Kayla know?”
“She signed the vendor approvals.”
I remembered her laughter when Regina called me the little accountant.
Kayla had spent charity money while mocking the person trained to find it.
A nurse entered with a wheelchair.
“Mrs. Hale, we can take you to see your daughter now.”
My heart began pounding.
Rachel closed the folder.
“We can continue later.”
The neonatal intensive care unit was quiet and dim. Machines hummed beside rows of incubators.
Hope lay inside one near the back.
She was smaller than I had imagined.
A cap covered her head. Thin wires rested against her chest. A tube delivered oxygen through her nose.
The nurse helped me place my hand through the side opening.
Hope’s fingers curled around the tip of mine.
Everything else disappeared.
The arrests.
The money.
The humiliation.
For that moment, there was only my daughter holding my finger as though she had already decided to fight.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I should have protected you sooner.”
The nurse stood beside me.
“You did protect her. You called for help.”
I stayed until the pain from surgery became too intense.
When I returned to my room, another visitor was waiting.
Preston Cole stood near the window.
Kayla’s husband had changed out of his wedding tuxedo. He wore jeans, a plain shirt, and the stunned expression of a man who had awakened inside someone else’s life.
Rachel blocked his path.
“You cannot question Laura.”
“I’m not here to question her.”
He held out his phone.
“I’m here to give her this.”
On the screen was a video recorded three nights before the wedding.
Kayla sat at a kitchen counter speaking to someone outside the frame.
Her voice was clear.
“Derrick will get Laura’s briefcase during the reception. Mom says the warrant dies without the original ledgers.”
A man asked, “And if Laura causes trouble?”
Kayla laughed.
“She’ll be thirty-four weeks pregnant in heels. What is she going to do?”
The man moved into frame.
Daniel Mercer.
My deputy director placed a glass of wine in front of Kayla.
“You need to make sure she stays distracted until midnight,” he said.
“What happens at midnight?”
“The baby account clears. After that, Regina can file the guardianship petition and make Laura look like the thief.”
Kayla smiled.
“And my wedding?”
Mercer touched her cheek.
“Will be perfect.”
The video ended.
I looked at Preston.
“Why were you recording them?”
“I wasn’t.”
He swallowed.
“Our home security system automatically records the kitchen. Kayla told me it had been disconnected.”
“Why would Mercer touch her like that?”
Preston’s face tightened.
“Because apparently my wife has been sleeping with him for two years.”
The room fell silent.
Rachel took the phone.
“Did Kayla know you had this?”
“No. I found it after agents released me.”
“Why bring it here?”
Preston looked at me.
“Because while Laura was locked in that bathroom, I was smiling for wedding photographs beside a woman who helped plan it.”
He turned toward the door.
Then he stopped.
“There is something else.”
Rachel waited.
“Kayla has a private storage room beneath the vineyard chapel. She told me it contained family decorations.”
“What does it actually contain?”
“I don’t know. But yesterday morning, I saw Regina carry a medical cooler inside.”
A medical cooler.
My thoughts returned to the forged psychiatric records.
“What kind of medical cooler?” I asked.
“White plastic. Red locking seal. A biohazard label on the side.”
Rachel reached for her phone.
Before she could call the search team, the hospital alarm sounded.
A nurse ran past the doorway.
Then another voice came over the speaker.
“Security alert. Neonatal intensive care unit. Infant removal attempt.”
I ripped the blanket away.
Pain exploded through my abdomen as I tried to stand.
Rachel caught me.
“Laura—”
“My baby.”
She pushed me into the wheelchair and ran.
We reached the neonatal hallway as security officers surrounded a woman in blue scrubs.
The woman had been wearing a nurse’s badge.
It was fake.
In her arms was a portable infant carrier.
Inside it lay Hope.
The woman looked directly at me.
May you like
Then she smiled.
“Regina said you were too weak to stop us.”
